In the ongoing closed record hearings concerning the development agreements  for proposed Black Diamond master planned developments council men (Craig) Goodwin and (William) Saas were challenged by the developer, YarrowBay, to recuse themselves. The reasons given by YarrowBay were that both councilmen spoke with our citizens’ technical team last spring and, thus, according to YarrowBay, violated the quasi-judicial development agreement hearing rules.

This is nonsense! All discussions and emails between the councilmen and our team dealt with the MPD ordinances passed in Sept. 2010 (existing city of Black Diamond law). There is nothing illegal about that and it has nothing to do with the ongoing quasi-judicial development agreement hearing.

The record must be straight. Two such dedicated public servants like Black Diamond city council men Goodwin and Saas should not be challenged for something that was completely legal and, I might add, part of the normal process to obtain input from the public which they serve.

We should all remember that we are very fortunate to live in a democracy, which provides us the opportunity of free speech, and we live in a republic, which allows for representation. Both the council men and our team were exercising their rights as American citizens.

Peter Rimbos

Citizens’ technical team leader